Favorite to win: NYC’s off-track betting takes the lead with a new HRMS solution

When the looming threat of Y2K was all too real, systems administrators at New York City’s Off-Track Betting (OTB) were not taking a gamble that their mainframe HR and Payroll system would make it past the December 31, 1999 deadline. Rather than letting it ride, OTB seized the moment and implemented a change that not only addressed their Y2K concerns, but also eliminated dual data entry by integrating their payroll and HR systems through an outsourced solution.

NYC OTB began as an off-track wagering organization with two branch offices in the spring of 1971. Designated to operate as a public-benefit corporation run along the lines of a private enterprise whose profits accrue back to the taxpayers in the form of public revenue, the organization raises needed revenue for the City and State of New York, provides a legal off-track pari-mutuel wagering operation and helps New York State’s racing industry.

Today, NYC OTB operates over 78 facilities including restaurants and tele-theaters throughout the five boroughs of New York, accepting 1.5 million sales transactions, on average, per day.

Integrating HR and Payroll while beating the Y2K clock

While the company’s betting system is periodically updated with state-of-the-art technology, the system handling HR and Payroll did not receive the same type of attention. Developed as a homegrown solution in 1970, the system continued on as the payroll rules changed over the years. According to Patricia McDonnell-Riggio, executive director of Human Resources for NYC OTB, the homegrown application served their unique needs but was deemed unable to survive past Y2K.

As the deadline for Y2K approached, the company had to decide on how to handle their payroll system. The legacy system was resident on an old IBM mainframe with an operating system that was no longer supported and the danger of it crashing was very real. According to Gary Anderson, Senior Director of Applications Development for NYC OTB, deciding which direction to pursue was no small decision. Their choices included: bringing in a team of programmers and rewriting their current system on another platform; bringing a payroll system in house; or choosing an outsourced solution. One thing was clear, the redundancy of dual data entry due to the lack of integration between their existing payroll and HR solution needed to be eliminated.

After weighing their options, the odds were in favor of selecting an outsourcing partner to meet their HR and Payroll needs.

“We looked at various companies regarding a new HR/Payroll solution and many companies had information regarding payroll, but no one had an HR component,” said McDonnell-Riggio. “I need to keep track of employees and information such as salary history and location history. For example, when a person is retiring and we need pension information to process them out of the system. So, I was looking for a solution that would interact with payroll and be a useful tool for the HR department instead of requiring someone to open a personnel folder and look up that information.”

Manual data entry becomes thing of the past

“Opening the gates” and issuing an RFP delivered an influx of proposals but after initial review, it was apparent that most vendors were unable to meet their standards for the HR component. Crossing the finish line first was Genesys, with a single integrated solution for human resources, benefits, self-service and payroll. Anderson notes that a considerable part of their decision to choose Genesys included the fact that “start up costs were relatively low compared to other companies” they reviewed and that Genesys “gave the best value for the money.” In addition to having the integration for payroll, the Genesys solution was also able to handle all the rules and unique needs of NYC OTB.

“Genesys spent a lot of time understanding our payroll rules and what is unique regarding NYC OTB,” said McDonnell-Riggio. “They reviewed our time and leave regulations, our union contracts and all of our vendor interfaces. They were willing to take all of the information out of the mainframe and pull it up into Genesys.“

As a unionized organization with over 1800 employees and as part of the New York City municipal system, NYC OTB’s time keeping, time and leave regulations, and actual salary structures are very unique as opposed to private sector businesses. In addition to a multitude of different payment types, such as shift differentials, overtime, time and a half, double time, recurring increment payments, longevity payments as well as step ups in base salaries, NYC OTB has approximately 50 different titles, each with a unique rule or regulation behind it that is dictated by union agreements.

“We have to abide by union agreements, different pay rates and a myriad of different rules associated with four major unions,” agreed Anderson. “There could be 100 different ways people are being paid.”

Prior to implementing the Genesys solution, manual data entry was the norm. Because the HR and Payroll databases existed separately and were unable to exchange data, dual data entry was required. Written in COBOL with well over 1000 programs, the maintenance that needed to occur in the old system when a new rule came about was also very labor intensive.

“There was a higher rate of error and a lot more paperwork with our old system,” added McDonnell-Riggio. “We had to do our own calculations, put in a particular increase, manually input the title code and other necessary information. In terms of sharing information, everything had to be manually sent down- it was more time consuming and labor intense.”

Outsourcing Payroll and HR reduces manpower and increases efficiencies

Through the Genesys PeopleComeFirst® HRMS solution, the NYC OTB payroll and Human Resource systems are now consolidated, offering the convenience of having everything in one place and the cost savings associated with outsourcing including reduced hardware and manpower hours needed to maintain the database. Hand calculations are also a thing of the past. Now, simply choosing the title code or similar information from a drop-down menu enables the preprogrammed calculations to yield accurate results immediately.

“The benefit in choosing an outsourced solution was that we in IT don’t need a staff to maintain the payroll system,” said Anderson. “The hardware, and certainly the maintenance on the data base, saves OTB money and manpower.”

From an HR perspective, McDonnell-Riggio appreciates Genesys’ willingness to customize the solution to best meet their needs in Human Resources. NYC OTB had specific screens made for information such as employee street address, section status, title codes, job categories, federal tax codes, and four different pension types. Another benefit has been the speed in which information is available.

“You can look at information at moments notice and get information without having to get up and look in folders,” said McDonnell-Riggio. “The system saves us a lot of time and it seems to be a lot easier to run reports.”

Anderson agrees that it is “absolutely easier to do reports on this system” and notes that they usually get a lot of outside requests for reports from city, state and federal governmental agencies that need to be generated for pension and medical plans.

“The report writer that Genesys provides is very user friendly and powerful,” added Anderson. “On the legacy system, we would write up the specification for a report and it would actually take a programmer a week compared to what we can get out in a matter of minutes from Genesys.”

While the system was relatively easy for IT to implement and begin using, it wasn’t easy to convince the management personnel in HR and Payroll that the system was better than what they previously had in place.

“There was some resistance but Genesys was very understanding,” said McDonnell-Riggio. “Our people were used to working on a system for 30 years and they didn’t want to let go. But we couldn’t go back to the old system. We had to learn and move forward.”

In a classroom style setting at Genesys’ headquarters in Methuen, Massachusetts, management personnel learned the new system and were given an opportunity to test it in beta form before it went live. When they returned back to their offices, a Genesys representative joined them to help build confidence and ease the transition through implementation. By delivering a high level of service, NYC OTB employees were reassured about the change. “Today our managers have embraced the system,” said McDonnell-Riggio.

One area that NYC OTB is exploring in the near future is automating the longevity of the base salary. For example, if a union contract indicates that a union person should receive a reoccurring increment payment every 18 months, the system would intuitively know when the payment should be increased.

An example of how the Genesys solution is meeting OTB’s needs is by facilitating a mass update increase. Recently, a union contract was settled that required retroactive payments, meaning that approximately 1,400 employees will be receiving a 3% increase dating back to July of 2003.

“In the past, it was all manual data entry,” said Anderson. “Our automated solution from Genesys can apply a 3 percent increase based on certain title numbers and work codes, cutting processing time from a few weeks to a couple of days.”

Win, place and show: Early implementation, elimination of dual data entry and integration of HR and payroll improve processes at NYC OTB

Timesavings and the reduction of manual work are the biggest benefits enabled by the solution and are noted by both Human Resources and IT. McDonnell-Riggio values having up-to-the-minute information at her fingers and doesn’t miss the trips from room to room to look up benefit and pension information or hunting for someone’s address or age.

For Anderson, meeting their Y2K deadline, successfully integrating HR and payroll, and eliminating the dual data entry hit the “trifecta” for the project implementation.

“Our legacy system was keeping our mainframe shop open and once we migrated to Genesys and got through Y2K early, employees in the mainframe room were able to fulfill needs in other departments, which probably would have been done by hiring additional people,” said Anderson. “The Genesys solution has paid for itself just from the salary savings alone.”

Through the Genesys solution, NYC OTB is able to process their payroll on time and more efficiently. Now, manual data entry and hand calculations are a thing of the past. Drop down menus and the ability to rapidly implement mass update increases has reduced union complaints and inquiries by 60 percent because information is readily available. McDonnell-Riggio notes that the changes have been significant and “by putting the payroll and HR data in the hands of user departments, we’ve eliminated unnecessary calls to HR and the reams of paper that were previously generated.”